Steering Committee

Lisa Nerenberg, Executive Director,
is a consultant in elder justice to local, state and national organizations and an instructor at City College of San Francisco. She has testified before Congressional committees, served on governmental advisory committees, and written extensively about elder abuse and related issues.

Shawna Reeves
is Director of Elder Abuse Prevention at the Institute on Aging. Her areas of expertise include predatory lending, investment scams, reverse mortgages, and working with traditional and alternative media to raise public awareness of elder abuse.

Jill Nielsen
is the Adult Protective Services (APS) Program Director for the City and County of San Francisco’s Department of Aging and Adult Services. Jill previously worked as an APS Worker and she is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker.

Robert MacLaughlin
is a former legislative committee consultant with experience analyzing aging and long-term care related legislation for the State Senate and the State Assembly. Robert has also served as the Legislative Coordinator for the California Commission on Aging, and served as Chief Deputy Director of the California Department of Aging. Robert retired from employment in November 2016.

Adria E. Navarro
is Assistant Professor of Clinical Family Medicine at the University of Southern California, and has worked in health and aging for more than 25 years. She currently works at the National Center on Elder Abuse, where she is focused on implementing grants related to maximizing health outcomes for vulnerable adults. She was part of a team that evaluated the Los Angeles Elder Abuse Forensic Center, has been following LA’s use of a Service Advocate, and is currently working with a project to understand multidisciplinary elder abuse teams across the nation, which includes an inventory and definitions of the types of teams. She is also helping to develop a documentation tool for physical injuries on older adults for physicians.

Molly Davies, Chair,
is Vice President of Elder Abuse Prevention and Ombudsman Services at WISE & Healthy Aging. She is Vice President of the California Long-Term Care Ombudsman Association and chaired CEJC’s Ombudsman/APS Jurisdiction Workgroup.

Donna Benton
is Research Associate Professor at the University of Southern California and is currently doing research on improving caregiver assessment using innovative evidence based programs online. She has a longstanding interest in elder justice as it relates to minority populations and elder abuse. She is a member of the California Task Force on Family Caregiving and previously chaired CEJC’s Subcommittee on Caregiving and Elder Abuse.

Suzanne Anderson
has spent the past twenty years involved with a variety of community and statewide organizations advocating for older adults and their families. She currently works for the Sacramento County Department of Human Assistance.

Carol Sewell, Vice Chair,
is Legislative Director of the California Commission on Aging, where she supports the Commission’s advocacy work on a broad range of policy issues. During her tenure with the Commission she has helped to secure passage of multiple laws promoting elder justice and to increase the Legislature’s knowledge and awareness of elder justice concerns.

Gloria J. Sanchez
serves on the Riverside County Advisory Council on Aging and she also is President of the Riverside County Foundation on Aging. She Chairs the Senior Advisory Committee for the City of Menifee as well as the Menifee Citizens Advisory Committee.